"How China And Pakistan Forged Close Ties" By CWP Alum Manjari Chatterjee Miller

On a visit to China almost a decade ago, I had a conversation with a Beijing-based Chinese foreign policy analyst. The subject of China’s relationship with Pakistan came up and the analyst laughed ruefully. Although he acknowledged Pakistan saw the bilateral relationship as a valuable friendship, he implied that was not how China saw it. China was in some ways reluctant, I gathered, even to be seen as cultivating a friendship with Pakistan. At the time, the idea of taoguang yanghui (hide your strength and bide your time) still held sway in China, and the Chinese government was not only wary of being seen as an international spoiler state but also siding with one. China saw no need to trumpet the relationship, and Pakistan needed China more than the other way around.

But a decade has made a difference. The bilateral relationship is important for both countries now. Last week, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi made it a point to meet his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The rhetoric in China today openly and consistently refers to Pakistan as a good friend and supportive partner. What changed? The answer comes not only from the one factor that has always driven the relationship—India—but also from China’s own changing ambitions.

Originally published at Hindustan Times October 3, 2022 9:23 am (EST). Full Article here

https://www.cfr.org/article/how-china-and-pakistan-forged-close-ties?amp&source=gmail&ust=1664928210344000&usg=AOvVaw1W2YUa-YjcIF9Cly2z2ARa

Manjari Chatterjee Miller is senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She is also a research associate in the Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford. An expert on India, China, South Asia, and rising powers, she is the author of Why Nations Rise: Narratives and the Path to Great Power (2021, shortlisted for the 2022 Hedley Bull Prize in International Relations) and Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy in India and China (2013). Miller is also the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations (2020), a monthly columnist for the Hindustan Times, and a frequent contributor to policy and media outlets in the United States and Asia.

Photo Credit: By Government of Pakistan - http://www.pc.gov.pk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Highway-Network-of-cpac-new.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48972437